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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12673  by Patrick
 02 May 2022, 18:13
One interesting thing from this was the fact that although I am confident the queen was not in the hive, they didn't raise emergency cells. I wonder if this is due to the them having already raised swarm cells.
 #12674  by Alfred
 02 May 2022, 18:38
Exactly- I've had loaded cups at the top of frames this year along with 'peanuts' from halfway down.
These are all old ladies so superseding plans might not have been completely off the table.
Swarm preps have appeared so early this season.
 #12675  by Cable_Fairy
 02 May 2022, 20:10
Inspected both of mine this afternoon, both have swarm cells and superceedure cells. I have moved one Queen into a poly hive and will be getting some more hardware in a couple of days.
 #12677  by gwt_uk
 02 May 2022, 21:28
Alfred wrote:
02 May 2022, 18:38
Exactly- I've had loaded cups at the top of frames this year along with 'peanuts' from halfway down.
These are all old ladies so superseding plans might not have been completely off the table.
Swarm preps have appeared so early this season.
Yes I usually don’t get swarm prep until Mid May onwards.
 #12680  by MickBBKA
 03 May 2022, 01:35
Well, its obvious East winds of death here have convinced the bees that there is no point even thinking about swarming just yet. Apart from one cell charged with royal jelly but no larvae I haven't seen a single other queen cell despite having some colonies now on 2 x brood + a 1/2 and 4 supers. I am now thinking my decision not to build anymore boxes or buy foundation was a mistake. The very unusual abundance of pollen in March and warm temps is a new one to me and some are way ahead from what I have ever seen before. I just know its all going to fall apart at the same time... :D OSR is rapidly going to seed, no green patches yet but if it doesn't warm up in the next week then they will have missed it, warm winters and cold springs are a pain.
 #12685  by AdamD
 03 May 2022, 20:01
On the Farmers Weekly website this week one farmer said
"As the old saying goes, ‘a wind from the East is no good for man nor beast’" which made me think of you Mick! ;)
 #12687  by Alfred
 04 May 2022, 08:26
One hive left to deal with regarding swarm prep
They were the last to decide and the poor weather will ,I hope have curbed their enthusiasm until this afternoon when the rain is due to ease off.
They are prolific honey monsters,granted but otherwise complete aholes,so it's going to be the brutal option.

My bad luck and incompetence will be used to my advantage
I will not be able to find the queen, even without being mauled, so the hive will be moved and the old site re- equipped to absorb the foragers and the frames I lift out that she will definitely not be on.
The new queen might mate to a better temperament and the old girl can take the final curtain in Autumn.
Perhaps.
All going roughly to plan,the extractor might get fully paid for this year so I can start breeding some sanity into the apiary ready for retirement.

With the swarm cells appearing so early this year I'm wondering if it's a good thing that they are just getting it all over and done with ,or it's going to persist way further into the season.
You can never tell with bees
 #12688  by NigelP
 04 May 2022, 08:50
Why not add a frame of eggs from a decent queen to the box that will collect the foragers. Add in some stores, pollen and shake some nurse bees from the super(s() Or just add the supers to the collecting box and you have a win win situation. If you cannot find the old queen shake the lot out after a week or so. The bees will soon find new homes but queen won't be admitted.
I shall be doing something very similar this afternoon, but it will be a frame of eggs from an island mated Buckfast queen.
 #12690  by NigelP
 04 May 2022, 15:50
Got absolutely drenched when a thunderstorm of biblical deluge came out of nowhere whilst I was working the bees. The track was flowing like a stream in spate, thank goodness for 4WD.
Needless to say will have to go back tomorrow and finish off.
On a good note a Snelgrove I performed last week had all the queen cells taken down in the top box. As I don't want to keep this queen I found her and caged her in the top box, so, hopefully things will stay that way and no queen cells will be drawn upstairs. Added a frame of eggs from an Island mated Buckfast queen into the bottom box so they can now raise their own new queen. Even changed the west entrance so the flyers return into bottom box. And opened an other entrance for them.
Hopefully despatch old queen in a week or so and unite all the boxes back together. And as bonus I took a super of honey off them.
 #12692  by NigelP
 06 May 2022, 17:10
First extraction of the season.
Can't remember having honey this early before. Nice tasting stuff as well.....with more to come as many supers are coming along, just not capped enough.
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